


in waking dreams

by dancesontrains



Category: Borderlands (Video Games)
Genre: M/M, Post Borderlands 3, contains the warstache, dubcon
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-01-12
Updated: 2021-01-12
Packaged: 2021-03-16 19:27:18
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,071
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28712007
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/dancesontrains/pseuds/dancesontrains
Summary: Rhys dreamed of Jack again that night.
Relationships: Handsome Jack/Rhys (Borderlands), past Rhys/Sasha (Borderlands)
Comments: 6
Kudos: 25





	in waking dreams

**Author's Note:**

> Based on a lovely render by @jerememez and written with permission: 
> 
> https://twitter.com/Jerememez/status/1348068115704373251

Rhys dreamed of Jack again that night.

As usual, they were together alone somewhere. That night they were in Rhys’s office on Promethea. 

Rhys struggled against the shibari rope binding him, but it was too tight. Handsome Jack was staring at him, in the flesh and not a mass of blue data. He was there and firm and solid. 

Jack had Rhys in his clutches, over and over, again and again - he dreamt of it in the ruins of Helios, in Rhys’s childhood home, in his college dorms that he had shared with Vaughn. 

Sometimes Jack was an AI, moving through things and yet somehow trapping him in something, under something. More usually, Jack was there in the flesh in these dreams, there and feeling as real as anything else did. 

It was a dream, after all. 

Rhys felt tears leak out of his eyes, hard-on straining at his pants, as Jack held onto his face with one giant hand.

“Oh Rhysie, Rhysie,” he cooed, sliding a thumb into Rhys’s mouth. Rhys obediently opened his lips. “What will we do with you? What _can_ we do with you?” 

Handsome Jack shook his head in mock concern. Rhys looked into his eyes - there was no real care there. It was not what he had needed from the man. 

Not what he had wanted, before AI Jack manipulated him, used him to take over Helios. 

There was only desire in those eyes as Jack pushed his thumb further into Rhys’s mouth. 

Rhys curled his tongue around the rough tip, sliding it up and down. Tears continued to fall from his eyes. 

“Oh, I know what you want, Rhysie. I always have,” Jack continued, sliding out his thumb. He continued to move the wet thumb over Rhys’s lips.

“Because, Rhysie? _Cupcake_? I know you better than you know yourself.” 

Handsome Jack leaned in for a kiss, and Rhys woke up, jumping slightly. 

He glanced down at his tented sheets. 

“Sasha? I had the dream again...”

Silence. 

Oh. She was gone.

Rhys ignored his hard-on, turning onto his side, away from the space where she would have been, and clutching his pillow.

——

Sasha had been saying for months that he should go and get his cybernetics checked out. Rhys had refused to do so - “They’re just dreams, Sasha. Horrible, sexy dreams.”

Also, if he was honest with himself, he was kinda scared about what the tech would find. 

It felt a bit pointless now that Sasha was gone, and he couldn’t rest his head in her lap at the end of the day and tell her all about it. 

But Rhys had his PA book him an appointment. The cybernetics tech had a cancellation that day, and Rhys soon found himself in a small white room a few miles away from his headquarters.

The tech was a professional looking non-binary person with a small moustache. Rhys touched his own warstache for a second. It was no longer strictly necessary, but praise from a vault hunter had made him decide to keep it. 

(And that Zane had a very fine set of facial hair himself.) 

Rhys moved his attention back to what zie was saying. 

“This is just a routine check up; I’m sure you’ve had one of those before. First, we’ll scan your cybernetics, then -“ zer eyes flicked over the notes on zie’s computer - “Oh. Oh, dear.” 

Rhys chuckled, feeling slightly self-conscious. “It has been a while! Haha, I just, er-” 

“You did _what_.”

“Probably, yes! But I don’t know what it is that you’re complaining about-“

Frantic typing on zer computer. “You need a brain scan. Immediately.”

Rhys, now feeling a bit panicky, was led to and a machine on the other side of the office. He stood under it for a few minutes.

The tech frowned at the results, bringing them up on a big hologram.

Zie pointed to lines in Rhys’s brain spreading from the cybernetics.

“The virus that caused you to remove your original Hyperion cybernetics is still there in a way? I’m not sure it’s removable, even with surgery-”

Rhys felt like he was going to faint. “Oh fuck, is it still in my brain? After all these years? I don’t-”

The tech looked concerned. “As I said, Mr. Strongfork, it’s still there _in a way_. Not fully, but enough to influence your brain patterns.”

Rhys digested that. 

“I’ve been having dreams? Regular ones, of-of- the virus.”

“That sounds about right to me.”

Rhys stared blankly at the hologram. The tech continued to speak. 

“Mr. Strongfork. If you have a virus, you need to actually delete the file. You can't just unplug some hardware and call it done!” 

“That’s…true, but-”

“As it is, I’m afraid to say it’s now very hard to remove.” 

Rhys thought of the dreams he’d been having. He looked at the hologram again, noting the faint lines left behind by the Hyperion tech he had been forced to remove years ago.

“Yeah,” he said quietly.

The tech mentioned some neurosurgeons that specialized in cases like his, and Rhys took the surgeons’ details via his ECHO eye. He travelled back to his office, lost in thought. 

The rest of the day was filled with paperwork. Boring, but boring was a relief after their fight with Maliwan.

Rhys felt anxious as he settled into his lonely bed, but soon he fell asleep.

That night he dreamed. 

This time he was with AI Jack, sitting on the cliffside near where he grew up. The sun was setting, moons were rising. Some animals were playing in the surf. 

“So now you know, Rhysie,” AI Jack said, looking out across the ocean. 

“Yes,” Rhys agreed. 

They sat there in silence for a few more minutes, Rhys glancing at what he could see of the other man’s face. 

_At least you stayed_ , Rhys thought but did not say. 

AI Jack flickered slightly. 

Rhys wasn’t sure if the spectre had read his thoughts just then. Jack’s face was turned away from Rhys, towards the moons that were now fully visible in the darkening sky. 

“I’m just glad I’m not alone,” Jack said, sounding emotional. 

Rhys moved his hand to cover Jack’s fingers, which were solid and firm and warm like AI Jack had never been.

Jack was just the remains of some damaged synapses, after all. 

AI Jack turned and smiled at him. It even looked like he might have meant it.

**Author's Note:**

> Some dialogue for the tech taken from preussischblau. 
> 
> Kindly betaed by Ladymdc. 
> 
> Thank you for reading. Find me at dancesontrains @ Twitter and Dreamwidth, or handsomejackshairplugs @ a mostly abandoned Tumblr.


End file.
